Rembrandt - not Rembrandt? Paintings and Drawings by Rembrandt and his
pupils
from the collection of the Hamburg Kunsthalle and the Kunsthalle Bremen
25 June - 3 September 2000

The
exhibition »Rembrandt - not Rembrandt« is a joint project being organized
by the Hamburg Kunsthalle and the Bremen Kunsthalle. For the first
time, these two concurrent shows will bring together works of art
by Rembrandt and his pupils drawn from the collections of both museums
and present them to a wider public. The exhibition in Bremen will
focus on drawings, the Hamburg Kunsthalle on paintings. How do we
recognize a Rembrandt? What
are the aesthetic aspects which make his paintings different from
those of his pupils and successors? What importance did the artists
and collectors of the time place on questions of style? The exhibitions
in Hamburg and Bremen offer an excellent survey of the artists who,
as colleagues, pupils or employees, had direct contact to Rembrandt,
which set the standards for the generation of artists to come. The
pupils' response to their teacher is evident in the form of repetition,
in terms of style, subject matter and composition. This double exhibition
attempts to identify the similarities and the differences upon which
we base our judgement »Rembrandt - not Rembrandt« and puts our powers
of aesthetic discrimination to the test. ?